Afghanistan are back to their Indian ‘homeground’ after four years for the first-ever Test encounter with inaugural World Test Championship winners, New Zealand. The one-off fixture gets underway from September 9 at Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida but the Atlans, the official hosts, will take on the Black Caps, without their superstar leg-spinner Rashid Khan.
News18 CricketNext on Thursday learned that Rashid wasn’t named in the Afghanistan squad for the only Test match against New Zealand due to a back injury.
“Rashid has a lower back injury. He is likely to away from Test cricket for almost a year,” an Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) official told News18 CricketNext.
According to the Afghanistan team management, Rashid suffered the injury during the Shpageeza Cricket League (SCL), an Afghan T20 league, earlier this month. Representing Speen Ghar Tigers, the ace leggie played for three consecutive days and picked up six wickets at an average of 9.33.
In the game against Amo Sharks, Rashid experienced a back pain which kept him out of the remaining fixtures. He had smashed smashed 53 off just 26 balls in his last SCL outing.
Last year, Rashid underwent a minor surgery following the ODI World Cup in November. His absence in the New Zealand Test didn’t come as a surprise as didn’t feature in the ODI series against Sri Lanka and Ireland played in February and March. The star leggie injured his hamstring while playing in The Hundred before turning up in the SCL for the Speen Ghar Tigers.
Rashid has so far played five Test matches for Afghanistan and have scalped 34 wickets at an average of 22.35. His best bowling figures – 11/275 came against Zimbabwe in 2021 in Abu Dhabi.
Big Names Missing in New Zealand Tests
Besides Rashid, the likes of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman are some of the names who will miss the only Test against New Zealand. Gurbaz is currently in the West Indies, representing Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2024. While Mujeeb is currently nursing a finger injury.
Led by skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi, the team of 20 players landed in New Delhi on August 28. Before taking on the Kiwis, they will have a week-long training camp and the squad will be cut to 15. Following the Test match, the squad will fly to Sharjah for a three-match ODI series against South Africa, starting September 18.
Afghanistan preliminary Test squad: Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Abdul Malik, Rahmat Shah, Baheer Shah Mahboob, Ikram Alikhel (wk), Shahidullah Kamal, Gulbadin Naib, Afsar Zazai (wk), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ziaurrahman Akbar, Shamsurrahman, Qais Ahmad, Zahir Khan, Nijat Masoud, Farid Ahmad Malik, Naveed Zadran, Khalil Ahmad, Yama Arab.
